There was some surprise when Pittsburgh was announced as the venue for this week's G20 meeting of leaders of the world's largest economies. After problems with proposals to hold it in New York, Barack Obama moved the conference to Pennsylvania's second city to highlight the way Pittsburgh had "transformed itself from the city of steel to a centre for high-tech innovation – including green technology, education and training, and research and development."

Based around the meeting point of the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers and renowned for its huge number of bridges and evocatively named neighbourhoods such as Shadyside and the Mexican War Streets, Pittsburgh is consistently ranked in surveys as a desirable place to live; the Economist Intelligence Unit this year called it America's most "livable" city. It has low unemployment, good schools, and reasonable house prices that avoided the housing boom and last year's bust, although its population has dropped in recent years and it has a relatively high crime rate for a city its size.

Named after William Pitt the elder, the 18th century British prime minister, Pittsburgh was once the heart of America's steel industry, its notorious smog earning it the nickname "hell with the lid off". In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the city was home to many of America's most successful "robber baron" industrialists, including Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Mellon brothers, as well as Henry John Heinz, the founder of the Heinz food company. But, as Obama noted, it transformed its economy following the collapse of the steel industry in the 1970s and 80s, with the healthcare industry and several respected universities now key employers.

The city has a thriving theatre and arts scene, with writers such as August Wilson, John Edgar Wideman and Michael Chabon – who launched his career with the novel The Mysteries of Pittsburgh – linked to the town. Its most famous son is probably Andy Warhol, who is celebrated in an impressive museum on the city's North Shore. Pittsburgh's American football team, the Steelers, who play to a packed stadium on the Ohio river, are another local success, and were the winners of this year's Super Bowl, while the ice hockey team, the Penguins, won the 2009 Stanley Cup.

Policymakers in the city are hoping not only that Pittsburgh will benefit from the world media focus and economic boost the G20 summit will bring – but also that the decisions taken by world leaders here will help the city's renaissance continue.